<p>Check with your local community college for an accent reduction course. Our community college offers one, and I hear it’s pretty good. It is cost effective too, so you may want to check it out.</p>
<p>If you are concerned about people understanding you just do what Americans do when they are touring in a foreign country: speak v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and VERY LOUD.</p>
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<p>It depends on where they are from in the south. Deep south- a bit- but from main cities- they sound very similar to the people in the Northeast. there might be some twang to how they talk. People from tennessee, texas, florida and Georgia sound normal though a lot of the rural types fit the southern accent streotype. I think other posters are pointing to the claim that people in the south discriminate based on accents. Nevertheless people in the south dont rily care much about your accent. </p>
<p>I kind of understand where the OP is going to- its going to happen even more in college especially during discussion section. Everyone turns to look at you and you get nervous and forget your questions. Then people are going to get bored of you though so no worries. Your best bet is to find a group of American girls as friends and try and talk just like them. Learn to use “whatever”, “OMG”, and “like” everytime and within a month you would sound like girls straight from jersey shore.</p>
<p>Another advantage of strong accents though: You could say a lot of crap during discussions, and no one would question you because they can"t hear a single thing you are saying. Happens to me all the time- I just mumble and everyone in class nods like a zombie. Gets you extra points for participation. Another advantage is that you can get extensions in class by telling the professor how you are struggling with english. American professors are really sympathetic and assume if you have an accent you would have problem with reading english. Not true, but it works like a charm.</p>
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<p>I’m saying that all Americans (and all humans) have accents, south and all. An accent is just the way you speak. To say that one place has a ‘stronger’ or ‘more neutral’ accent than another is ridiculous.</p>
<p>pdts</p>
<p>lol ok, whatever you say then.</p>
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That’s one way of looking at it but that’s not the meaning most people have in mind when they talk about accents, especially in the context of foreign language acquisition. Insofar as accents refer to a deviation from a “standard” pronunciation or the influence of an (explicit or implicitly understood) cultural factor on your pronunciation, it makes very much sense to talk about stronger or less noticeable accents.</p>
<p>That’s true, but I took the poster to be saying that native English speakers from the south have ‘strong accents’, but the rest of the USA is ‘neutral’?</p>
<p>Nah! They all have strong accents, for example people from NYC, you can spot them a thousand miles away, the rest of the tri state area are also easy to spot. They all have a different accent. And yes “southern” accent is a bit stronger or should I say easier to identify for foreigners as “southern”, however they all have a different accent among them</p>
<p>thats a good way of looking at it. However in general- The american accent has always been seen as the impartial accent lol. Meaning deviations from it are termed as “accents”</p>
<p>Seen by who? That’s just nonsense.</p>
<p>^ I meant “generally seen”. It seems clearer than most accents (likely because people watch too many tv shows and it is common because of the media). So the rest of the people are seen to have accents which is not the case. I agree that everyone has an accent, but some are generally viewed as more acceptable-sadly</p>
<p>Except that the international ‘standard’ English accent is closer to British English than American English.</p>
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<p>Dpends on what you would term international. I dont think there is an International standard of English. The fact that English itself is duh- from Britain would make sense that standard english would be british. Nevertheless, english as commonly used especially in media though and pop culture is significantly and overwhelmingly American. Consequently more people are used to it. The world is flooded with American pop culture lol from movies, to songs to even books.</p>
<p>A lot of people learn english this way- watching TV and stuff apart from the standard format of sitting in class.</p>
<p>But have you spoken to many English speakers from Africa, Europe and Asia? Almost all of them speak a more ‘British’ variant? Not to mention South Africa, Australia, India and NZ.</p>
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<p>if we’re gonna be picky, what is this international “standard” english accent that you speak of ? because every SEA country that i’ve been to has had its own accent, however minor.</p>
<p>You all are talking about South, so I thought that I should’ve mentioned that I live in Florida. :)</p>
<p>I agree that every SEA country has its own accent, and when an SEA speaker loses the accent, it more or less usually becomes American English, rather than a British accent.</p>
<p>@keepittoyourself
actually in Africa most people speak the ‘American’ version, though it is true that in Europe the ‘British’ one is more popular</p>
<p>I understand why some people want to lose their accent. Mine is a mix of spanish, french, british, american and maybe even morrocan. It sounds really weird when I think about it xD I like it 'cause its different and I know no one has the same accent, but sometimes having a flawless english accent would be nice…</p>
<p>Actually the many African varieties of English are in general much closer to British and even Australian dialects than American.</p>
<p>@crazysmiles most africans DO NOT speak with an american accent at all.British standard english is taught and spoken(very well)here.</p>